If only all resolutions were this tasty…whole wheat flour and wheat bran accented with lemon. Enough said…

As is evident from my many, many pancake posts, I have a thing for the fluffy little suckers. And what’s always bothered me is finding a good whole wheat pancake. They always seem to come out dry, flat or rubbery…basically frisbees with syrup. So with that in mind, I decided to alter a favorite pancake recipe to include whole wheat flour and wheat bran. The result? Pancake heaven. These are too good to keep from you guys…so jump right onto this recipe…like now!

Whole Wheat Lemon Buttermilk Pancakes

2 cups whole wheat flour

1/2 cup wheat bran or wheat germ

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 tablespoon sugar

2 1/2 cups buttermilk

2 eggs

1 tablespoon lemon zest

1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

In a small bowl, crush the lemon zest into the sugar to create a lemon sugar blend. Sift together the flour, wheat bran, baking powder, baking soda and the lemon infused sugar into a large bowl. In a separate bowl, whisk together the eggs, buttermilk and lemon juice. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and whisk together until there are no more lumps.

Either spray a frying pan or griddle with Pam or melt a tablespoon of butter in the pan. Pour out enough batter to make a small or medium sized pancake and watch until bubbles form in the batter. Then gently flip the pancake and allow to brown on the other side for about 2 more minutes. Transfer the finished pancake to a plate and repeat the steps with the remaining batter.

Outside of Christmas, Fall is my favorite time of year. After the oppressive heat of the Summer, it’s nice to have a cool crispness in the air. And the beauty of watching the leaves change colors is almost indescribable. Going on a long, directionless car ride surrounded by beautiful trees was one of my most treasured childhood memories. We’d get into the car and drive around Augusta, looking out at the trees and trying not to get on each other’s nerves (my sister wasn’t a fan of younger Shaw Girl…seriously, she tried to give me away on several occasions). But the best thing about Fall to me is the new crop of produce I get to play with…and a cooler kitchen! You try gathering up the motivation to bake or cook in 98 degree heat…

Nothing says Fall like apples and apples are everywhere at the local farmer’s markets. I got four beautiful ones in my CSA box, so I decided to do something different with them. We are all well aware of my love of pancakes, but instead of just doing an apple pancake, I decided to take it one step further and make an apple dutch boy. I have made a dutch boy before, so it was easy enough to modify the recipe and add apples. While I was at it, I decided to toss in walnuts and a sprinkling of cinammon. And since I was going all apple crazy, I simmered apples, walnuts and cinammon in syrup to create a nice topper for my puffy pancake. A perfect breakfast/brunch for a beautiful Autumn weekend!

Walnut Apple Dutch Boy (makes two large dutch boys)

1 cup all-purpose flour

2 tablespoons sugar

pinch of salt

1/2 teaspoon cinammon

1 cup milk

2 teaspoons vanilla

4 eggs

1 large apple (any variety), cored and diced

handful walnuts

1 tablespoon butter

10 to 12 inch oven proof skillet

Confectioners sugar for dusting

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees

Sift together the flour, sugar, salt and cinammon into a medium sized mixing bowl. Set aside. Crack the eggs into a separate bowl and whisk in the milk and vanilla. Make a well in the dry ingredients and pour in the egg mixture. Using a larger whisk, blend the dry and wet ingredients together until smooth. Add the apples and walnuts and set the batter aside. Place the butter in an oven proof skillet (it is very important it is a 10 to 12 inch skillet) and put the skillet in the oven to melt the butter. When the butter has melted, take out the skillet, pour in half of the batter and quickly place it back in the oven. Allow the pancake to cook for 20-25 minutes or until it is puffy and golden. Slide the dutch boy out of the skillet (this is a bit tricky, so be careful not to tear the pancake) and add another tablespoon of butter to the skillet. Allow it to melt in the oven and follow the same procedure for the second dutch boy. Dust the pancakes with powdered sugar (if you’d like) and top with syrup.

I opted against the powdered sugar and instead topped my dutch boy with the apple walnut syrup. Not to sound cliche, but this dutch boy really tasted like Fall…minus my sister trying to offer me to strangers at Sears.

For me, Sundays mean decadent breakfasts spent lounging over the newspaper and listening to the pundits battle it out on the talking head shows. So when I woke up on Sunday, I decided to treat myself to my favorite: mixed berry pancakes. The recipe is not only easy, but it turns out fluffy pancakes every time!

Seriously, this recipe has less than ten ingredients, can all be mixed in one bowl and is fool proof. It’s an old recipe from a church cookbook my mother owned for years. And since I had a busy weekend of baking and cooking, making these were a no brainer. You can use any combination of berries, but since I had strawberries and some dethawed blueberries lying around, I decided to throw them into the mix. I also added some cardamom, a spice I am now totally obsessed with and use every chance I get.

2 cups all purpose flour

2 tablespoons sugar

2 teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoon cardamom

2 eggs

2 cups buttermilk

1 cup berries – I used strawberries and blueberries

2 tablespoons butter, melted

Sift together the flour, baking soda, sugar and cardamom into a mixing bowl. In a measuring cup, pour out the two cups of buttermilk and add the eggs and butter. Whisk together and then pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients. Stir until all the lumps are gone, then add the berries.

Either spray a frying pan or griddle with Pam or melt an additional tablespoon of butter in the pan. Pour out enough batter to make a small or medium sized pancake and watch until bubbles form in the batter. Then gently flip the pancake and allow to brown on the other side for about 2 more minutes. Transfer the finished pancake to a plate and repeat the steps with the remaining batter.

I used the juices from the berries as a sort of syrup for these babies. I simply boiled the juices down until they thickened and let the concentration cool to room temperature. I was actually surprised it worked (and that I didn’t burn my pot), so it was a nice bonus. Notice I refrained from making any bacon…and it just about killed me.